Life's Messy. Lit Happens.

So, Who the Heck is Book Mama?

Life is full of so many questions. Who am I? Why am I here? Where is my coffee? What is that smell? Can I afford my next book binge?

To start, I am a 34 year old working mother of a two young boys. I am very happily married to the one person who not just puts up with my nonsense; he encourages it. I am the typical suburban woman with a relatively nice home (always a work in progress), a dog, and a cat. The only thing missing is the white picket fence. Despite how idyllic that sounds; my life is a chaotic mess 95% of the time, and books are my sanity.

There have been so many hobbies that I have tried, and I have liked most of them. However the one thing that I have always loved has been reading. I can remember being 4 years old, and figuring out that I could read “Miffy at the Zoo” back to my father. Two years later, I received my first big girl chapter books “Meet Kirsten” and “Ramona the Pest”. I powered through these two books in a week, and that was it. Books were now life. Day after day, night after night, I would be holed up in my room reading anything I could get my hands on. The Sweet Valley Twins and The Babysitters Club were my BFF’s throughout elementary school.

Sure, my mom tried to get me out of the house, and enrolled me in sports and scouting just so I would be forced to leave my room. Which was well enough, because that is where I met my real life best friends, so things worked out. So much of my childhood and young adult life was spent with my nose in a book. This led to full fledged geekdom once I discovered fanfiction on the internet in high school. My desire for “one more chapter” has led to a life long love of procrastination.

These days, books are my sanity. They are my anchor in the constant raging storm around my daily life. I cope with major depression along with an anxiety disorder, and that is a forever thing. I can’t watch the news for too long. I constantly struggle to maintain human relationships because most of the time, I don’t see the need. The one constant that I can come back to are books and my family. I can’t focus on television, and not may movies interest me. But, if you give me a sci-fi or fantasy novel, I will be content.

Science fiction and fantasy novels of the YA persuasion are my jam. I love slipping into a world where I can just let go and imagine. The “young adult” genre has always been my favorite. So many adult novels just can’t seem to capture the themes and character complexities that young adult novels do.

I find it hard to express my feelings, and let people know in detail how I feel about pretty much everything. So this is the place where I will try to let that happen. That is the purpose of this blog.